Attacking the Mountain

Li Changsheng went so far as to force Huang Bailin to bind himself to a Dao Pact, stipulating that if the Huang family ever sold Green Jade Pills outside the four counties-or to any power other than the Li and Song families-Huang Bailin would suffer the backlash of the Heavenly Dao.

While the pact seemed to leave room for exploitation, the Huang family dared not take any risks. The backlash of the Heavenly Dao was terrifying in the extreme, and the slightest misstep could cause Huang Bailin to perish.

A major reason the Li and Song families had ceased hostilities was precisely Huang Bailin's formidable strength. It was only because of this that the Huang family was even qualified to sit at the table.

If the Huang family allowed greed to blind them and cost Huang Bailin his life, the Li and Song families would instantly return to teach them a lethal lesson.

Li Changsheng took all the spirit plants from the two families' shops, gave a few brief instructions to Li Kongyun, and then his flying boat soared away toward the north.

"Fellow Daoist Huang, do not forget your promise."

With those final words, Black Wind Old Ghost transformed into a gust of dark wind and fled into the distance. He had not fared well in this battle either and needed to return to his lair early to heal and recuperate.

Madam Qingyue left without uttering a single word, taking to the sky and vanishing into the horizon.

Huang Bailin opened his mouth to call after her several times, but in the end, his words only dissolved into a heavy sigh.

In his early years, he had walked the demonic path, and he and Madam Qingyue had been known across Zhaoping Commandery as the Twin Fiends of Muhua for over a decade. Yet due to various reasons, the two had eventually become complete strangers.

This time, Madam Qingyue had come uninvited solely to sever the remaining shackles of her past emotions.

After bidding farewell to Huang Bailin, Fan Yu and his two companions hurriedly rushed back to their respective Dao fields, deeply afraid that some mishap had occurred in their absence.

After all, they each had family estates to maintain and could not afford any delays.

Only Old Man Black Crow remained behind, leisurely taking up residence in the Qingfeng Tower. He had originally been a solitary old mortal who had chanced upon a cultivation inheritance in his eighties, managing to survive until he achieved Qi Condensation.

Because he was entirely alone, he had never given thought to establishing an immortal clan. Having accepted the Huang family's warm invitation to assist them, this battle effectively cemented his place as the Huang family's new Qi Condensation guest elder.

With this development, the Huang family now boasted four Qi Condensation cultivators alongside three allied families, making them undeniably powerful.

Huang Bailin was thoroughly exhausted and flew straight to Pingyun Mountain to recuperate.

Although Huang Zhengming and Huang Zhengqing were also heavily injured, they remained on the ground, directing the Huang family's mortals to restore order within and outside the market town. However, the ground outside was littered with countless bones and shredded flesh, presenting a truly gruesome sight.

Baixi Mountain

Zhou Minghu and his party returned home safely. After sorting through the belongings of the slain rogue cultivators, the Zhou family found themselves in possession of five volumes of low-grade Guide Qi techniques. Among them was the Crimson Fire Art, which could be cultivated all the way to the Qi Condensation realm, making it the second most powerful technique in the family's archives.

They also acquired several Enlightenment-level heavenly materials and earthly treasures, along with a substantial number of talismans and pills.

Although these items were of no use to Zhou Ping, they vastly improved the self-preservation capabilities of the Zhou family's Enlightenment-level cultivators.

As the saying goes, "Murder and arson bring a golden belt." A brief bout of slaughter was enough to fill one's pockets to bursting, making it easy to see why demonic cultivators never ceased their wicked deeds.

Yet just as Zhou Ping and his kin were beginning to settle into safety, two figures suddenly materialised in the sky above Baixi Mountain.

"Old Xu, are we doing this or not?" Jin Yuanfeng asked.

Xu He spoke aloud, "Of course we are! This Zhou family has been established for less than ten years. That Zhou Ping cannot possibly be beyond the third layer of Qi Condensation-more than likely, he is only at the second layer. You and I are both at the third layer. There is no way we can lose."

These two were cultivators from the Xu and Jin families of Dongshan County, and they were part of the group of four who had previously been watching the market town from afar.

Knowing they could not extract any benefits from the market, they had turned their sights onto the Zhou family instead.

Without hesitation, the two unleashed their methods to bombard the defensive formation.

Jin Yuanfeng sacrificed over a dozen golden beads, which instantly swelled into massive spheres that crashed down upon Baixi Mountain. The terrifying force caused the grand formation to manifest, sending violent ripples cascading across its surface.

Xu He continuously swung his flying sword, raining down slashes that resembled massive blades of light, causing the formation to shudder and groan.

The mortal servants and family members inside the estate fell into a panic. Looking up at the sky as if the heavens themselves were collapsing, they fled frantically in all directions to find cover.

The moment the formation trembled, Zhou Ping detected the intruders and barked sternly, "Who goes there? Why do you attack my family's Dao field?"

"Jie jie jie!"

Xu He and his companion offered no reply, continuing their relentless bombardment of the barrier.

Zhou Ping knew that passive defense was not a long-term solution. Although the grand formation had gathered Spirit Qi over the years and he had continuously reinforced it to enhance its power, it would not hold out forever if he simply sat and waited for death while letting them strike it at will.

As he manipulated the formation plate to maintain the defenses, he closely scrutinized the duo, arriving at a rough estimation of their strength.

Both were at the third layer of Qi Condensation, matching his own realm. The one controlling the golden spheres possessed weaker offensive power, but getting entangled by him would be incredibly tedious. The sword cultivator was fiercer, but ultimately less troublesome than his partner.

With these thoughts in mind, Zhou Ping concealed his small shield and small sword on his person, gripped Zhou Minghu's long sword in his hand, and clutched his jade seal, prepared to unleash a devastating strike at a moment's notice.

He even slipped a vial of poisonous liquid into his sleeve, hoping it might serve as a decisive surprise.

"Father!"

"Uncle!"

Zhou Minghu and the others called out in deep anxiety.

Zhou Ping instructed calmly, "Minghu, take Chengyuan to the back mountain. If anything goes awry, take him and flee toward Darong Mountain."

"Xuanya, take Qianling and head north. Fusheng, you head south. Only by splitting up do you stand a ghost of a chance at survival."

As for the others, they could only be left behind to serve as distractions to buy the fleeing bloodline time.

With that, Zhou Ping soared into the sky.

A small opening was deliberately breached in the formation. Watching Zhou Ping emerge, Jin Yuanfeng and Xu He sneered repeatedly.

"We thought you intended to remain a turtle in its shell for the rest of your days, Fellow Daoist."

Though they appeared arrogant and overbearing, both secretly activated their defensive techniques, refusing to lower their guard simply because Zhou Ping seemed weak.

The two immediately lunged at Zhou Ping. Their magical artifacts drove forward with ferocious momentum, interspersed with lethal techniques aimed straight for the kill.

Even with the long sword magical artifact in hand, Zhou Ping was no match for their combined might. He was pushed back repeatedly, narrowly escaping disaster several times.

Below, Zhou Minghu and the others watched with bated breath, cursing their own weakness for being unable to assist. Zhou Chengyuan's heart blazed with fury as he stared unblinkingly at the sky, his small fists clenching tightly.

Jin Yuanfeng manipulated a vast cluster of golden spheres to encircle Zhou Ping, steadily constricting his maneuvering space until his position became incredibly precarious.

A massive golden sphere hurtled toward Zhou Ping with crushing force. Suddenly, Zhou Ping executed a hand seal, and countless gale-force blades abruptly condensed before blasting the sphere away. It crashed heavily into Ming Peak, gouging out a hole a zhang wide and causing the earth to shudder.

Yet the remaining spheres continued to rain down in a ceaseless torrent, leaving him barely able to cope.

Seizing the perfect opening, Xu He flitted like a shadow between the golden spheres, his long sword erupting with sky-rending power as he executed a vicious slash directly at Zhou Ping.

"Father!" Zhou Bai screamed from the courtyard below, his eyes brimming with tears of dread.

With nowhere left to dodge, Zhou Ping seemed destined to be cleaved in two. However, a small shield suddenly expanded in midair, solidly blocking the fatal strike.

Immediately after, the shield shattered into a cloud of fragments, scattering across the sky.

The shield had already been damaged, and after being used repeatedly by Zhou Ping and his son, it had finally reached its limit.

Jin Yuanfeng and Xu He were overjoyed. They had anticipated that Zhou Ping might possess multiple magical artifacts, which was why they had been carefully suppressing him to test his reservoir. Now, they had finally forced one out.

The two erupted with full power, closing in to finish him off.

But at that exact moment, Zhou Ping flicked his sleeve, sending a massive spray of poisonous liquid flying straight toward the closer Xu He.

Xu He let out a cold laugh. How could such a clumsy trick possibly catch him off guard? A protective barrier of Spirit Qi manifested instantly, blocking the liquid entirely.

Yet right behind the poison, a streak of white light erupted with piercing sharpness, punching clean through the Spirit Qi barrier and driving straight toward his spiritual aperture!

Xu He frantically mobilized his True Essence to block. Even so, the sharp light pierced his torso, leaving him drenched in blood, though he narrowly saved his spiritual aperture from destruction.

When he reached out and caught the object, he saw that it was a small sword magical artifact that had already fractured into pieces.

"Another magical artifact!"

As Jin Yuanfeng rushed forward to assist, he found himself staring directly into Zhou Ping's next lethal technique. In an instant, countless wind blades blasted toward him.

Furthermore, a jade seal soared into the air, expanding into a massive phantom that crashed down upon him with crushing weight!

"No!"

The power radiating from the jade seal was terrifying. Jin Yuanfeng's heart seized with unprecedented dread.

He desperately tried to flee, but the wind blades pinned him to the spot. Though he recalled his golden spheres to shield himself, they were instantly batted away by the phantom of the jade seal. Jin Yuanfeng could only watch in despair as the massive shadow completely engulfed him.

Everything occurred in the blink of an eye. By the time Xu He finished dealing with the small sword, Jin Yuanfeng had already been pulverized into a bloody paste, causing Xu He's soul to tremble with terror.

"How does he have yet another magical artifact? Just how many treasures does this Zhou Ping possess?!"

He had never expected that while Zhou Ping's cultivation realm was unexceptional, his arsenal of magical artifacts would be so terrifyingly deep. If the fight continued, he feared he would be the next one killed by some unknown weapon.

As the saying goes, "Better a dead fellow Daoist than a dead self." Xu He completely lost his will to fight.

In the next instant, he mounted his sword and transformed into a streak of flowing light, fleeing into the distance.

Zhou Ping panted heavily, making no attempt to pursue. He had just unleashed his ultimate technique, Wind Whirl Thousand Blades, in rapid succession, on top of draining his reserves to activate four magical artifacts. The Spirit Qi within his body was nearly depleted; if he forced a pursuit, there was a high likelihood he would be turned upon and killed instead.

He quickly swept the battlefield, retrieving thirty-eight Spirit Stones from Jin Yuanfeng's remains, alongside a unique magical artifact set composed of fourteen golden beads. There was nothing else of value.

Having sacrificed two of his own magical artifacts to achieve this, Zhou Ping could hardly tell if he had gained or lost on balance.

Following Xu He's frantic escape, word that Zhou Ping had held his own against two opponents and slain one quickly began to spread.

The Huang family had originally intended to suppress the Zhou, Meng, Wei, and Wan families after the crisis settled, organizing their alliance into a strict hierarchy. Now, they were forced to completely re-evaluate their stance toward the Zhou family.

After all, strength was the ultimate truth in the cultivation world. Zhou Ping's combat prowess was formidable enough to rival a cultivator at the fourth or fifth layer of Qi Condensation, making him a respectable powerhouse within Zhaoping Commandery. In a region where powerful cultivators were scarce, he was naturally someone the Huang family needed to placate and draw closer.

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